For sailors of small boats, mastering the ocean is the ultimate test. From Hampton Roads Saturday, 94 sailors from many states and Canada in 22 boats set off on such a test: A voyage of 1,500 nautical miles to the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The gods and goddesses of the sea smiled upon them. The sun broke through clouds just before the noon start west of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. The air was mild, the wind moderate from the southwest, perfect for easy sailing out of the bay. The gargantuan waves kicked up by the ferocious Atlantic storm of a few days earlier had flattened and Norfolk weatherman Terry Ritter reported that skippers would enjoy favorable conditions for days on their course east-southeast toward Bermuda.

The storm that battered the coast had sunk sailboats and forced the abandonment of others along the very track that the sailors would be taking. But at the start the fleet resembled a yacht club's weekend cruise. Gaily colored spinnakers were set; sailors broke out shorts and T-shirts and waved happily to each other.

Fred Sage had motored his sailboat out from the Hampton Yacht Club with the club's starting cannon mounted near the bow. It barked at noon, sending the voyagers on their way riding the ebb tide out past Fort Wool.

This was not a fleet of weekend sailors, however. Here were rugged cruisers - old-timers would call them stout and able - their sterns festooned with lifesaving gear, masts bristling with antenna for radios, radar and satellite navigation systems, decks laden with big winches and windlasses and canisters containing life rafts that can be inflated instantly.

On board were men and women who had prepared strenuously for the voyage, often for years. Typically, they were fit and tanned, in middle age, veterans of many miles of inland and coastal sailing. Some had just retired and would be starting a new life of live-aboard cruising; St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands would be the first of many ports. Others, who were helping family or friends, would soon be flying back. Yet others were embarking on a mid-life respite, taking one or two years off.

Most of the boats will be at sea for one to two weeks, said Stephen W. Black, organizer of the event, which he ran last year for a similar but larger fleet. Skippers and crews had spent last week at Norfolk's Waterside Marina getting their boats ready and attending meetings and social events at the nearby Omni International Hotel. Also participating were crews of 14 other sailboats that took off southward on the Intracoastal Waterway, some for ports in Florida and the Bahamas and others who planned to keep going from there to the destination of the offshore sailors.

The attraction of the rally, or group sail with a bit of nonserious racing, is simple: For those willing to subject themselves to sporting dangers that might wipe out a large slice of their worldly assets and maybe their lives, it helps to have company, at least the first time.

As the sailors met in seminars on equipment and seamanship, Atlantic storms sent wind howling through the rigging of their boats in the marina outside. Black and his partner, Tony Lush, were low-key delivering one of the key presentations, ``Coping with Fear.''

``Fear can be productive,'' Black said. ``If you think the rig is going to come down on you, then check out your fittings and do other useful things. If you start thinking about drowning, then wear your harness and get that preserver on. ... If you are getting pounded, there is always something you can do to smooth out the ride.''

Black has raced across the Atlantic alone in both directions in small boats and he talked soothingly of what the sailors can expect. He likes to use the word ``boisterous'' to describe rough conditions and took pains to caution his audience. They are likely to face a storm or two on their trip, he said. ``Fortunately, the most intense winds don't last for more than six hours or so.''

``There will be times when things are really impressive,'' he said, drawing snickers and giggles from the 100 or so sailors lined up in the Omni meeting room, who were clear-eyed and intent at 8:30 in the morning.

Last year's fleet was hit for 30 hours by a storm early into their voyage, Black said. One boat that was losing its rudder had to be towed 100 miles back to Little Creek by the Coast Guard, he said. The fleet's lone solo sailor was dismasted, hitched a ride on a passing cargo ship and abandoned his 30-foot boat. Black made the trip on a 72-footer, Windward Passage. ``Our only problem was that one of the two televisions quit,'' he said.